Intravascular diseases are commonly treated by relatively non-invasive techniques such as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). These angioplasty techniques typically involve the use of a balloon catheter. In these procedures, a balloon catheter is advanced through the vasculature of a patient such that the balloon is positioned proximate a restriction in a diseased vessel. The balloon is then inflated and the restriction in the vessel is opened. In other uses a catheter may be used to deliver an endoprosthesis such as a stent, graft, stent-graft, vena cava filter or other implantable device or devices, collectively referred to herein as a stent or stents. Where a stent is to be delivered into a body lumen the catheter may include one or more inflatable portions or balloons. Typically, the stent is retained in the pre-delivery state about the catheter shaft, or a portion thereof such as a balloon, by crimping and/or through the use of a retaining mechanism such as sleeve, sheath or sock.
Some of the above mentioned medical devices include electrically operable components. For example, U.S. patent application Pub. No. 2005/0165439 A1 teaches medical devices such as catheters, guidewires, and aneurysm coils, in which electrically actuated materials, such as electroactive polymers and piezoelectric materials, are used to enhance or expand functionality. U.S. patent application Pub. No. 2005/0187603 A1 teaches the use of electroactive polymer (EAP) materials in the form of a collar or balloon waist to provide a balloon with the ability to be selectively rotated about a catheter shaft. U.S. patent application Pub. No. 2008/0027377 A1 teaches a catheter shaft with an EAP wall that can provide a changeable diameter for a lumen. U.S. patent application Pub. No. 2008/0086081 A1 teaches an expandable medical balloon including an EAP material to provide for an expanded and deflated state of the balloon. U.S. Pat. No. 7,338,509 teaches the use of an EAP material in a device delivery sheath that volumetrically expands and contracts upon application of an appropriate electrical potential.
Medical devices that include electrically operable components include electrically conductive pathways to transmit and receive electrical signals to and from the component. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,502 teaches defibrillator and demand pacer catheters including an electrically conductive pathway comprised of a plurality of lead wires. U.S. patent application Pub. No. 2003/0139794 A1 teaches a body implantable lead including coil or multistrand cable conductors enclosed in a housing for transmitting electrical signals. U.S. patent application Pub. No. 2005/0187603 teaches one or more conductive wires that extend from a proximal region of a catheter to collars associated with the catheter and a balloon. The '7603 publication also teaches that the electric circuit including the conductive wires can be completed as a result of the presence of saline or other fluid of an electrically conductive nature which is used to expand the balloon.